Tainted Saints

The four primary reasons the Dow broke 10,000 when the rest of the economy is in the toilet..

“In a departure from prevailing economic theory, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science was awarded Monday to two social scientists for their work in demonstrating that business people — co-workers as well as competitors — often find ways to mutually resolve problems that arise from free-market competition.

The prize committee cited Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University “for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons,” and Oliver E. Williamson of the University of California, Berkeley, “for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm.”

“Central banks flush with record reserves are increasingly snubbing dollars in favor of euros and yen, further pressuring the greenback after its biggest two- quarter rout in almost two decades.”

Read more…

I often hear people say that the economy must be doing fine because there are still so many people at the shopping malls, or waiting in line for the latest iApple. But what they are losing sight of is the fact that all those people still have jobs. I still have a very good job, and my life hasn’t changed at all since this recession began (other than worrying about losing my very good job if things get much worse.) But there are MILLIONS of people out there who have lost their jobs in the last year, and those people have stopped going to malls, and can’t afford their iPhones, anymore (among many other things, like food and housing.) And because our economy is so dependent on consumer spending, recovery can’t begin until those people find good-paying jobs. Which isn’t going to happen without some serious government intervention…

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/10/truth-about-jobs-that-no-one-wants-to.html

Unemployment is nearing 10%, and signs of growth are still few and far between. Although the latter is not necessarily a bad thing, since boundless growth is what got us into this mess, but we’re still using growth as the indicator of a healthy economy. At least until we finally realize that we have to STOP growing…

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/10/02/september_labor_report/

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm